Clothesline pulley



May 26, 1936. N. HUTCHINSON CLOTHESLINE PULLEY Filed April 4, 1935 Sum MA,

Patented May 26, 1936 UlTE STTS ,OFFICE 3 Claims.

This invention relates to clothes line reels or pulleys, and the mounting thereof, and particularly to pulleys designed to be disposed in a horizontal plane.

The main object of the invention is to provide a pulley of this character which has means for preventing the clothes line from dropping out of the pulley or becoming accidentally detached therefrom, and particularly from being wedged outward out of the pulley groove by clothes pins on the line or by the clothes suspended by said pins.

A further object is to provide a pulley of the character stated which is so constructed as to provide a deep circumferentially extending groove for the clothes line, and provide seats or sockets at right angles to the line seat for the clothes pins, the object being to support the line around the whole circumference of the pulley without any chance of this line being forced outward by the clothes or pins and thus become detached from the pulley.

A further object is to provide a bracket for supporting the pulley, so constructed that the pulley will be supported in a horizontal plane or approximately so, and that it will move with the wind current, but when the line is full of clothes, it will move only in one direction.

Other objects will appear in the course of the following description.

My invention is illustrated in the accompanying drawing, wherein:

Figure 1 is a Vertical sectional view through a clothes line pulley constructed in accordance with my invention, the supporting bracket and pin for the pulley being in elevation,

Fig. 2 is a fragmentary top plan view of the pulley shown in Fig. 1,

Fig. 3 is an elevation on a reduced scale of the supporting bracket.

Referring to this drawing, l designates a pulley which as illustrated is of sheet metal and preferably hollow, though I do not wish to be limited to this. The pulley has a line groove l I. in its circumference. Through the center of the pulley passes a bushing 12 for the reception of a supporting pin designated [3, and supported upon a fixed bracket Hi, this bracket being U- shaped or in the form of a gooseneck. The pin I3 is pivotally connected, at l5, to the bracket l4 so as to provide a knuckle joint at this point. That portion of the knuckle joint which is connected to the pin l3 is provided with a fork l6 loosely embracing a stop and limiting the swinging movement of the pin l2 in both directions. The pulley isheld upon the pin l2 by any suitable means, as for instance, a cotter pin ll.

Mounted upon the pulley at equi-distant points or spaced intervals are a plurality of sheet metal members formed to provide a relatively deep line seat with a contracted throat, the member, on each side of this line seat and above the contracted throat, being formed to provide a pin socket so that the clothes pins on this line, as the line passes onto the pulley, will be received in the sockets and supported at right angles to the line itself without wedging the line out from the pulley.

As illustrated in Figure 2, the pulley has a number of these seats, an eight-inch pulley hav ing thirty-two of these seats, and each of these sheet metal elements is formed of a sheet metal strip, designated generally IS, the strip being bent at its middle to form a relatively deep, approxi mately circular seat or enclosure I9 for the clothes line A. The sides of the seat l9 are bent inward and outward towards each other so as to form a contracted throat 2G, and then the sheet metal is bent outward laterally, then inward as at 2|, and then is extended inward radially toward the center of the pulley, as at 22. These supporting shanks 22, as they may be called, are riveted, bolted, or otherwise attached to the body of thepulley, as by the rivets 23. The portions 2| on each side of the contracted throat 20 are transversely cut away a 23 so as 0 provide clothes pin seats or sockets and permit a clothes pin to rest within the pair of seats or sockets in a position at right angles to the clothes line A, as shown in Fig. 1.

There will be a sufiicient number of these clothes line and pin seat forming members to form practically a continuous rim to the pulley, but at any rate there will be a sufiicient number of these members so that the clothes line will be engaged thereby at a sufiicient number of points as will prevent any possibility of the line leaving the pulley or being unsupported.

As before stated, the pulley is supported in a horizontal or approximately horizontal position. Under these circumstances if it were not for these clothes line engaging members, the line, because of slackness or because of downward pull due to the weight of the clothes or for other reasons, might slip off the pulley and out of the pulley groove H, but by providing these clothes line supporting members, the clothes line will be held within the relatively deep clothes line seat and prevented from becoming detached by the narrow throat 20, while at the same time provision is clothes.

made for the clothes pins. The line will, of course, extend outward under each clothes pin and then inward into the adjacent clothes line seat in the manner shown in Fig. 2.

With this device it is impossible for the clothes line to become accidentally detached. The support for the pulley or pulleys may be disposed upon clothes line poles, on buildings, fences, or in other suitable supports of this character, my invention being particularly applicable, however, where the pulleys are supported upon relatively tall poles and the clothes line is an endless line extending from a house. By providing the knuckle joint 15 with a fork IS, the pin [3 will hang vertically when no clothes are hanging on the line but will swing toa position where the pulley is downwardly inclined towards the opposite pulley when the clothes line is full of clothes. Too great a swinging of the pulley is prevented by the pin I 6 It will be seen that my structure keeps the clothes pins in an upright position while the line is passing around the pulley, and thus gives the operator a chance to hang more clothes on the line because with the ordinary pulley it is impossible to fill up more than one stretch or flight of the line because the clothes pins, if the line is pulled to carry the clothes pins around the pulley, will throw the line off the pulley. With my device, however, both flights of the line I may be filled with clothes.

Attention is called tothe fact that the fork IE on pin 13 permits the pulley to swing to a downwardly inclined position towards the opposed pulley on a post or house when the clothes line is full of clothes and sags under the weight of the If the pulley were rigidly mounted and could not swing, there would be a tendency for the line to pull out of the groove of the pulley but with my construction, the pulley takes the inclination of the clothes line when the clothes line is full of clothes, but as soon as the clothes far apart, it will be understood that these mem bers 22 may form segments of a circle so that the outer ends of the members 22 may be brought very closely together so as to form practically a continuous rim for the pulley.

While I have illustrated certain details of construction and certain arrangements of parts, I do not wish to be limited thereto as obviously many changes might be made without departing from the spirit of the invention as defined in the appended claims.

I claim:

1. A clothes line pulley having a circumferential groove and having a plurality of line engaging members mounted upon the pulley equi-distantly, each of said members consisting of a strip of metal bent at its middle to fit within the groove of the pulley and toform a nearly circular clothes line seat with a contracted throat, the metal on each wall of the clothes line seat being bent laterally outward and then inward and being attached to the body of the pulley, the outwardly bent portions of the strip on each side of the throat of the seat being cut away to provide transversely extending clothes pin seats.

2. A clothes line pulley having a plurality of line engaging members mounted upon the periphery of the pulley equi-distantly, each of said members consisting of a strip of metal bent at its middle to form the groove of the pulley and to constitute a nearly circular clothes line seat with a contracted throat, the metal on each wall of the clothes line seat being bent inward and being attached to the body of the pulley, the outer wall of each strip on each side of the throat of the seat being cut away to provide transversely ex- 3 tending clothespin seats.

3. In a clothes line attachment of the character described, a bracket, a pin pivotally engaged with the lower end of the bracket for swinging movement, a pulley mounted upon the pin and disposed at right angles thereto, the bracket having a stop and the pin at its upper end being formed to provide a fork coacting with said stop, the two arms of the fork being spaced from each other to permit the pin to swing in one direction to downwardly incline the pulley and in the other direction to a point where the pin is in a vertical position and the pulley in a horizontal position.

NORMAN HUTCHINSON. 

